This is gross, but it’s been going on for far too long and I need answers: if you were an ant, WHY, in the name of all that is good and holy and pure, would you choose to eat my toothpaste???
It has no nutritional value! There is nothing in it for an ant-y digestive system! Leave the green goo alone and go find another hobby!
I was somewhere in Vietnam when I ran out of travel-sized American toothpaste. I popped into the first little store I could find, and the grizzled woman behind the counter handed me a neon green box labeled “Colgate”.
“Yum, spearmint!” I foolishly said, and paid with a smile. Unfortunately, the green actually turned out to mean LIME flavor. Every morning and night since that fateful purchase, the citric acid tang tap dances badly around my tastebuds. I shudder and finish the job, reminding myself I hate waste and will not stoop to trashing a half-used product.
And yet, the taste that I abhor, the ants of Southeast Asia seem to adore. Every morning when I wake up after failing to thoroughly rinse the sink, I walk in to a raging ant party. If I had a magnifying glass, I bet I could see the little punks slugging plastic kegger cups of paste with drunken abandon. Shoot — I bet they’re even wearing little togas!
And they work fast. To take this photo, I just had to put down a sample Colgate bloop and wait five minutes. Yipes!
Anyway, I’m off now to buy cheap clothes at the Chiang Mai Sunday market with massage school buddies (and find mango sticky rice!). This should give the ants a little privacy to go wild on the sink dance floor. They just better be done gyrating to Britney by the time I come home!
The author, Lillie Marshall, is a 6-foot-tall National Board Certified Teacher of English, fitness fan, and mother of two who has been a public school educator since 2003. She launched Around the World “L” Travel and Life Blog in 2009, and over 4.2 million readers have now visited this site. Lillie also runs TeachingTraveling.com and DrawingsOf.com. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media!
Freek
Sunday 28th of August 2022
I'm using an electric tooth brush and when I leave it at the sink, the bottom of it (where there is always a chalky tooth paste residue stain) in some cases has been ABSOLUTELY CRAWLING with ants. And they don't even seem to care for other things in my house where they could actually obtain food, like the trash or the organic recycling bin
Lillie Marshall
Tuesday 6th of September 2022
Oh my gosh!!! Eeek!!!!
Joe
Sunday 18th of August 2019
I live in Canada and since i started getting ants a year ago, it is the only thing they come out for...they actually find a way under the cap and get in the tube, its amazing! I kept it in my medicine cabinet, and it took them a few months, but they found it. If i put it on the edge on my bathtub, in the rube closed, they come out within minutes from the wall to go after it! Whether it's colgate or crest, it makes no difference, they are on the tube and my brush! The tube is 100% clean with no residue at all on the outside..they smell it through the cap! I just dont undestand why toothpaste! I bought it at walmart and dollarama, or another major chain store.
Lillie Marshall
Sunday 18th of August 2019
That is so bizarre!!! Thanks for sharing your story, and I hope you're able to resolve the issue!
Starfish
Tuesday 10th of February 2015
This is happening to me right now! Small black ants ... I am in South India and even a big cockroach eating it!
Lillie
Tuesday 10th of February 2015
Oh no! Good luck!
Monica
Monday 6th of January 2014
Urgh, lime toothpaste! That sounds gross. I once had a gecko eat my toothpaste in India, it chewed a huge hole in it a made such a mess. I then replaced it with Indian toothpaste and bought a red tube because it was the closest thing to Colgate I could find. It turned out that the toothpaste inside was a browny red colour too and was like brushing my teeth with brick dust!
Lillie
Monday 6th of January 2014
Ewwwww!
Pete Laberge
Thursday 2nd of May 2013
The ants may be mining the toothpaste for some mineral they need. Also if sugar was one of the ingredients.... But I think you are MEAN! Denying ants the right to brush their little teethies! (Sorry about the tease Lillie!) STILL: The Society for the Rights of Ants will no doubt be contacting you! Even worse: When you threw it in the trash, the ants outside probably all rushed to the tube, unscrewed the cap, and threw a wild Baccanalian party, the likes of which Nero probably nevver even saw. Then they probably all brought some back to the nest for the queen! Woo Hoo! THE GOOD THING: You did not get poisoned by the stuff! Ugh! I'd go rinse if i were you! You nevver know! TAKE CARE!
Lillie
Thursday 2nd of May 2013
HAH!